Thursday September 15th 2022

The nice weather trend continued. Today was very similar to the last few days. It was bright sunshine, blue sky and low humidity all day. The temperature peaked in the mid eighties.

My daily breakfast usually involves my toaster. It may be used to turn bread into toast or heat an English muffin to golden perfection. This morning I loaded the bread into the toaster on the counter and sat down to my coffee and the internet. Moments later I was startled by the smoke detector and the smell of acrid smoke. Setting off the smoke detector with the toaster has happened before, but the acrid smoke rising from the toaster was a new experience. It was time to clean the toaster.

My toaster is stuck to the counter with 3M mounting tape so I don’t have to pack it away before each move. It has been that way since 2018. I use the sliding tray under the toaster and occasionally the vacuum cleaner to empty the crumbs. I’m not sure the last time it was emptied. The acrid smoke called for a more drastic cleaning. I unstuck the toaster from the counter, turned it over and shook the contents into the sink. It looked like half a loaf of bread in crumb form came out. Ok, nearly a cup. Along with the crumbs was a twist tie and a little piece of plastic wrap. I’m assuming the plastic wrap was the source of the acrid smoke. I’ll use the toaster for a couple of days to make sure it’s working before I stick it down again. Worst case is I need to buy a new toaster after a decade or more of use.

New RVs are arriving for the weekend. I don’t think the campground will fill up, but it will likely be the most occupied it has been since I arrived. Many of the new arrivals have brought their boats. The activity at the boat launch has increased and the sound of outboard motors can be heard during the day. There isn’t any place to keep the boats in the water, so they get loaded back onto their trailers after every use. The available parking in the campground is filled with trailered boats.